How To Load A Fridge Or Freezer

Once your refrigeration units are completely clean, it’s time to plug them back in and place food on the shelves. When placing food back in your commercial fridge, make sure that you're using proper food placement procedures.

Here is how you should stock your fridge:

Top Shelf: Ready-to-eat foods, produce, butter, condiments, pre-cooked foods

Second Shelf: Seafood

Third Shelf: Whole cuts of raw pork and beef

Fourth Shelf: Ground meat and fish

Bottom Shelf: Poultry

By placing raw meat and poultry on the lower shelves, you help prevent any juices and bacteria from dripping down and contaminating the food below it.

Organizing Your Fridge

There are also some helpful things you can do to organize your refrigerator and freezer and make it easier to find what you're looking for:

Add labels to any opened products. Adding labels helps you track the freshness of your food, so you can dispose of it when it expires.

Use color-coded bins. Using colored bins for different products makes them easy to differentiate, helping your staff find what they're looking for quickly.

Implement the "First In, First Out" method. First In, First Out, also known as FIFO, is an inventory management method that ensures that you use the freshest food first and prevents food from staying in your fridge for too long.